First fossil frog from Antarctica: implications for Eocene high latitude climate conditions and Gondwanan cosmopolitanism of Australobatrachia
Abstract Cenozoic ectothermic continental tetrapods (amphibians and reptiles) have not been documented previously from Antarctica, in contrast to all other continents. Here we report a fossil ilium and an ornamented skull bone that can be attributed to the Recent, South American, anuran family Calyp...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61973-5 http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-61973-5.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-61973-5 |
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crspringernat:10.1038/s41598-020-61973-5 2023-05-15T14:08:59+02:00 First fossil frog from Antarctica: implications for Eocene high latitude climate conditions and Gondwanan cosmopolitanism of Australobatrachia Mörs, Thomas Reguero, Marcelo Vasilyan, Davit 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61973-5 http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-61973-5.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-61973-5 en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Scientific Reports volume 10, issue 1 ISSN 2045-2322 Multidisciplinary journal-article 2020 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61973-5 2022-01-04T13:22:07Z Abstract Cenozoic ectothermic continental tetrapods (amphibians and reptiles) have not been documented previously from Antarctica, in contrast to all other continents. Here we report a fossil ilium and an ornamented skull bone that can be attributed to the Recent, South American, anuran family Calyptocephalellidae or helmeted frogs, representing the first modern amphibian found in Antarctica. The two bone fragments were recovered in Eocene, approximately 40 million years old, sediments on Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula. The record of hyperossified calyptocephalellid frogs outside South America supports Gondwanan cosmopolitanism of the anuran clade Australobatrachia. Our results demonstrate that Eocene freshwater ecosystems in Antarctica provided habitats favourable for ectothermic vertebrates (with mean annual precipitation ≥900 mm, coldest month mean temperature ≥3.75 °C, and warmest month mean temperature ≥13.79 °C), at a time when there were at least ephemeral ice sheets existing on the highlands within the interior of the continent. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Seymour Island Springer Nature (via Crossref) Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Seymour ENVELOPE(-56.767,-56.767,-64.283,-64.283) Seymour Island ENVELOPE(-56.750,-56.750,-64.283,-64.283) Scientific Reports 10 1 |
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Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
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English |
topic |
Multidisciplinary |
spellingShingle |
Multidisciplinary Mörs, Thomas Reguero, Marcelo Vasilyan, Davit First fossil frog from Antarctica: implications for Eocene high latitude climate conditions and Gondwanan cosmopolitanism of Australobatrachia |
topic_facet |
Multidisciplinary |
description |
Abstract Cenozoic ectothermic continental tetrapods (amphibians and reptiles) have not been documented previously from Antarctica, in contrast to all other continents. Here we report a fossil ilium and an ornamented skull bone that can be attributed to the Recent, South American, anuran family Calyptocephalellidae or helmeted frogs, representing the first modern amphibian found in Antarctica. The two bone fragments were recovered in Eocene, approximately 40 million years old, sediments on Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula. The record of hyperossified calyptocephalellid frogs outside South America supports Gondwanan cosmopolitanism of the anuran clade Australobatrachia. Our results demonstrate that Eocene freshwater ecosystems in Antarctica provided habitats favourable for ectothermic vertebrates (with mean annual precipitation ≥900 mm, coldest month mean temperature ≥3.75 °C, and warmest month mean temperature ≥13.79 °C), at a time when there were at least ephemeral ice sheets existing on the highlands within the interior of the continent. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mörs, Thomas Reguero, Marcelo Vasilyan, Davit |
author_facet |
Mörs, Thomas Reguero, Marcelo Vasilyan, Davit |
author_sort |
Mörs, Thomas |
title |
First fossil frog from Antarctica: implications for Eocene high latitude climate conditions and Gondwanan cosmopolitanism of Australobatrachia |
title_short |
First fossil frog from Antarctica: implications for Eocene high latitude climate conditions and Gondwanan cosmopolitanism of Australobatrachia |
title_full |
First fossil frog from Antarctica: implications for Eocene high latitude climate conditions and Gondwanan cosmopolitanism of Australobatrachia |
title_fullStr |
First fossil frog from Antarctica: implications for Eocene high latitude climate conditions and Gondwanan cosmopolitanism of Australobatrachia |
title_full_unstemmed |
First fossil frog from Antarctica: implications for Eocene high latitude climate conditions and Gondwanan cosmopolitanism of Australobatrachia |
title_sort |
first fossil frog from antarctica: implications for eocene high latitude climate conditions and gondwanan cosmopolitanism of australobatrachia |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61973-5 http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-61973-5.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-61973-5 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-56.767,-56.767,-64.283,-64.283) ENVELOPE(-56.750,-56.750,-64.283,-64.283) |
geographic |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Seymour Seymour Island |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Seymour Seymour Island |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Seymour Island |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Seymour Island |
op_source |
Scientific Reports volume 10, issue 1 ISSN 2045-2322 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61973-5 |
container_title |
Scientific Reports |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1766281046778707968 |